


Case Seven: Harry Hook

by MelyndaR



Series: Auradon Social Services: Isle of the Lost Division [8]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Peter Pan & Related Fandoms, Peter Pan (1953)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Harry Needs a Hug, Isle of the Lost (Disney) is a Terrible Place, M/M, United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect, and he gets both, and therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28683393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: Harry was still irritated – it was like the universe was making fun of him, bringing him here to Auradon where any sane person would want to be (did that mean he was insane?), but taking away the man he loved in the process, giving him the worst roommate and foster family imaginable in exchange. He could have three squares or two hands to hold – pick one, the demons hissed from the edges of his nightmares… and more recently from his waking thoughts.
Relationships: Audrey Rose & Uma (Disney), Aziz (Disney) & Harry Hook, Ben & Gil (Disney: Descendants), Ben (Disney: Descendants) & Original Character(s), Doug/Evie (Disney: Descendants), Evie (Disney) & Original Character(s), Gil/Harry Hook/Uma, Harriet Hook & Harry Hook, Harry Hook/Uma
Series: Auradon Social Services: Isle of the Lost Division [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854097
Comments: 17
Kudos: 78





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Since this story wasn't necessarily originally planned, I hadn't been collecting songs for it. The ones that I think fit, though mostly repeats from Uma's story are:  
> What's My Name - China Anne McClain, Thomas Doherty, Dylan Playfair  
> I Hate Love Songs - Kelsea Ballerini  
> Underage - Kelsea Ballerini (because Harry's story deserved "it's own" Ballerini song)  
> What About Us - P!nk

_They weren’t as grand a parade as they would’ve been not long ago,_ Harry Hook thought, looking over his shoulder at the combined pirate crews as they all walked with him, Uma, and Harriet to the town square. _And they were about to be short another three people – about to be short all their_ leaders, _besides – once he, Uma, and Harriet got in those limos._

In a way, he wanted to be excited for going to Auradon, even if it did mean going to a stupid, fancy prep school, but he couldn’t be, not when he looked back at his… his _crewmates_ and wondered what they were going to face without their usual leaders there to help them. He wanted to go, but he didn’t want to leave them behind, and he didn’t want to say “goodbye.”

So, when he was in the moment, he said the quickest “goodbye” he could manage, smiling and making a happy scene because it was better for people to think he was victorious than to realize that he was emotional.

“Goodbye, all!” Harry called to the gathered crowd, and to his crew specifically, with his most charming smile.

When CJ wouldn’t meet his gaze, he slugged her in the arm with a wink that made his little sister wrinkle her nose, and he turned to Gil before he could think too much about the angry tears in her eyes. She was thirteen, the people who had essentially raised her were leaving, and there was no part of this that was fair.

The moment Harry pulled Gil in for a hug, he realized even that might have been a mistake. Gil’s arms around him were strong and comforting and as much a home to him as his chin propped atop Uma’s head, her face buried in his shoulder. He wanted to kiss his boyfriend “goodbye,” but he didn’t dare – that would be the last straw before tears that none of them could afford – and Gil knew it as well as Harry did.

“I’ll see you later,” Gil whispered the promise in his ear before he let Harry go.

Harry threw his solitary bag into the trunk of a limo and climbed into the car, the first one waiting to go – not because he was that excited, but because he was afraid that, for all his waving and charming smiles, he wouldn’t be able to bear the process of leaving.

* * *

Harry zoned out _hard_ on the way to the mainland, mentally preparing himself for more people and another crowd to put on a show for, and not even Harriet noticed. The only time he caught her looking at him was the one time he smiled during the whole drive – when he caught sight of a bush of purple flowers; _he hated them_ , he decided, because the people on the Isle couldn’t even have something as simple as flower bushes, and here they lined whole streets. _Neva would love them, though,_ he thought. _Hell, so would Gil._ And he smiled, and so did Harriet, and he went back to staring coolly out the window.

* * *

They’d been at the school for twenty minutes, and already he just kept finding new reasons to hate this place. He pulled Uma close at the earliest opportunity – _they were better together, not as great as when Gil was there, too, but better than when they were alone_ – and flirted teasingly with the Agrabahn girl who’s name he didn’t even catch. She turned him down, and Uma glared at him, and Harry squeezed his girlfriend’s hand so tightly he wondered if it hurt. Then they were separated, Uma going one way, Harry, Harriet, Jay, and the other girl going towards the library, of all things.

Then: “As much as I hate it, there’s something we need to talk to you guys about.”

Harry glanced at Jay, not particularly caring to hear whatever it was that the little prince “hated.” “How mysterious.”

But Jay literally bowed out to the girl, like the soft coward that this place had made him into, and she said, “Okay. I know this is going to feel really way out of right-field and unfair, but Mal asked me to talk to you guys about Auradon’s stance on homosexuality, same-sex relationships, girls-like-girls and guys-like-guys, et cetera. Mainstream Auradon isn’t very fond of homosexuality, and Mal indicated that could be a problem for you two.”

 _Well, that was one reason why the powers that be might not have wanted to bring Gil here with the rest of them,_ Harry thought, stalking away at the earliest opportunity as his suspicions were confirmed. _He hated this place, and no amount of green, flowery bushes were ever going to make up for the lack of Gil._

* * *

His sister clearly did not share his opinion, though. She spent the afternoon chattering with a toddler and playing nice with the adults while Harry kept his mouth shut, afraid he’d throw up if he didn’t. _It was bad enough for their crews that they’d come here… but it was bad for_ them _that they were being separated like this, bad for them that the people that had brought them here would have some flimsy excuse like a romance to keep Gil from coming at all._

Harriet spent the afternoon settling in, Dizzy Tremaine was having the time of her life, and Harry spent the whole time trying to catch Uma’s eye, trying to find a second alone with her so that they could come up with a different plan.

Even if the only thing they could do was just go home to the Isle.

But he couldn’t talk to her until it was almost too late to say anything at all, and he hated that, too.

Uma was worried about something; he knew her better than anyone, and he could tell. Despite his already-growing desire to get out of here, away from this place that was so perfect it made his skin crawl, the first question he asked as he held her close was, “You okay?”

Uma shook her head, resting her forehead against his shoulder and taking a deep breath. “I messed up. I messed up big time, already.”

Harry’s brow creased in concern as he put just enough space between them to look down at her, but before he could say anything – _How could she have done something that bad already?_ – Harriet came over to them, muttering, “Harry, we gotta go. You guys will see each other next month, okay?”

Harry wanted to stay with Uma, at least until the worry eased from her eyes, possibly forever, but when Uma took a step back and nodded at Harriet, he followed her lead and did the same. He leaned in to kiss Uma’s temple, whispering, “You’ll figure it out, love, just like you always do.”

He hated the Darlings’ stupid, ugly family van that he climbed into, he hated leaving Uma, and for a minute, he hated Harriet for asking him to.


	2. Chapter 2

The Darlings’ house was pretty and comfortable, and he had a whole bedroom to himself, and he told himself he hated it all because it didn’t match his aesthetic. _Who wanted to live in a house like this, boring and fit for nothing but an equally boring grandma?_

He genuinely hated their drooling pony-dog – _what the hell sort of name was “Nana the Third?”_ – and it wasn’t hard to dislike their equally annoying five-year-old. He didn’t _despise_ the older kid, Jane, mostly because when her preteen temper was at it’s worst, she reminded him a little of CJ. 

Harry stayed in his bedroom as often as possible, just so he didn’t have to interact with them. He stayed in his room and he stayed to himself, fostering his dislike of this place with the same care his foster parents kept trying to extend to him.

Eventually, his dislike even started to extend to Harriet, to the way that she managed to blend in so well here even though he _knew_ it was a lie. They both knew that she was keeping bigger secrets than him, things that might just ruin the quiet girl façade she’d cultivated and get her shipped back to the Isle. And the Darling’s _loved_ her for it, when at least _he_ was being honest about how he felt.

He was angry and lonely and wanted to be surrounded by his crewmates who deserved to be here as much as he did. He wanted _Gil and Uma._ Lacking that, he didn’t want anything to do with what the mainland had to offer if he couldn’t share it with them.

So, if they couldn’t come here, he quickly decided he would be okay with going back to them. He just had to make these people – his “guardians” – send him back.

Raising hell was the only fun he had the whole time he was at the Darlings’ house.

He broke some dishes, trashed their garden, got into daily arguments with whoever was closest. Made Jane as angry as he was and laughed when she started screaming back at him. Made Danny cry, and when the damn dog got between them, he kicked her.

It was petty, but out of sheer spite, he took to calling Mr. Brown “Mr. Darling,” and then laughed when Harriet started slipping up and calling him that, too. When Mr. Darling smiled at them, assuring them that the title didn’t both him in the least, Harry scratched a stripe down the middle of their dining room table with his hook and fled back to his room. He slammed the door, locked it, and dropped onto his bed, spending a solid twenty minutes staring at the blank wall and fuming.

_Short of hurting their kids – because he had limits, thank you very much – what was it going to take to get these insufferably nice people to send him back to the Isle? To send him to another family, at least, because odds were, he’d be closer to Uma in another house._

_If he couldn’t keep his promise to Gil and look out for Uma, then he wanted to go home. He wanted to go_ to Gil _. Uma really could look out for herself, was doing fine in Triton’s Bay._

 _And if he couldn’t go home yet…_ he began to get an idea, smiling slowly as he stared at the boring blank wall. _If he was going to be stuck here, he might as well make his space feel a little more like home._ Smiling now, he bounced onto his feet and pressed his ear to the bedroom door. _They were all downstairs._

_Perfect._

Easing the door open, he crept into Harriet’s room, opening the door to her closet, and grabbing their mother’s sword from the shelf above the hanger rack. Returning to his bedroom just as silently, Harry locked the door again, and for a minute, he just stood there, holding the familiar, worn sheath in his hands. It wasn’t a fancy sword, but he remembered that as a young boy he’d thought the trio of fake emeralds on the hilt were pretty. He’d thought it nice that the bits of colored glass glinted like his mom’s eyes whenever she was using the sword.

In the present moment, he shoved away the thought that his mom would be disappointed with what he was about to do with her sword, and he shoved away the fuzzy memories of her. He unsheathed the sword and pressed the tip into the boring white wall.

It took more time than he’d expected to do what he wanted to, but in the end the familiar motto was carved into the drywall. “WE RIDE WITH THE TIDE!” Harry stepped back to admire his handiwork, and he smiled to himself.

He sheathed the sword without wiping away the dusty bits of drywall that clung to it. He wanted them to find it this way, wanted them to know that Harriet was least a little involved in misbehavior too, sometimes. But mostly he wanted to shatter their stubborn desire to make him better than what he was.

_This oughta do it; he should be back with Gil on the Isle inside of a week._

* * *

They were friggin’ _nice_ about it! Mr. and Mrs. Darling were shocked, of course, but they stayed calm and patient, and it made Harry angrier than ever.

The only things they did to him inside of a week were give him pills and sit him down in front of a shrink. He laughed at the pills and took them just to shove the Darlings closer to the end of their rope when he continued to act out regardless. He ignored the shrink and ignored whatever she told him to try and fill his silence.

He sulked in silence for three weeks, screamed whenever he felt like it, and never let them see him when he was okay. He told himself, _he didn’t_ deserve _to be okay here when Gil couldn’t be here too, when the rest of the crew was still on the Isle,_ and he thought it so often that he made sure he believed it.


	3. Chapter 3

“Harry, listen,” Uma’s deep sigh filtered over the phone. “I get it. I do, believe me. I feel guilty every time I put on real pajamas and sleep on a double-layered mattress. I’m living in an _actual castle._ You think I don’t get it, because I do. But you’re being _extremely_ short-sighted. I get that _you’re_ frustrated and homesick – _so am I_ – but the _VKs_ that you’re talking about? The _crew_? _Gil_? They need us to do this _right_ , to make a _good_ impression so they can come here, not a bad impression so we can go back there. Harry…” she groaned his name in frustration. “I wish you would’ve told me all this was happening before now!”

“It doesn’t matter. The only reason I’m even mentioning it now is because I’m frustrated that none of it made a difference.”

“I’m glad it didn’t!” There was a stir on Uma’s end of the conversation, and she requested, “Can you just behave for like twelve more hours, please?” Harry stared out the window, unhappy but calm, because this was Uma, and Uma was one of three people in the universe who’d ever been able to calm him. “Harry,” she demanded into his silence.

“Yeah, yeah,” Harry lowered his head, picked at a rip in his jeans, added under his breath, “Only for you.”

“I’ll take it. I gotta go, but, hey, I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

He smiled thinly at that. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

* * *

 _He hated it when Harriet got like this, tried to railroad him and boss him around like she did her kids._ Like she hadn’t just spent weeks alternating between ignoring his misbehavior and blaming him for his own loneliness and desperation while _she_ sat pretty and forgot her crew. And now that they were at school, now that he was about to find Uma and have someone again, now she wanted to act like his big sister again?

_Nah._

The last straw came when he was dragged to his own dorm room – going the opposite way from where he expected to find Uma – and saw the nameplate on the door.

“ _Aziz & Harry_”

“Aw, hell no.”

Harriet glared at him and shoved him into the room anyway. They scared off Prince Aziz’s assistant, but, even as he began to unpack, Harriet didn’t leave him alone, and Harry was almost relieved when someone else came into the room. The boy was wearing a sweaty blue and gold school t-shirt and matching basketball shorts; with a sports bag on his shoulder, he didn’t look like any of the princes Harry had ever seen on the news. He dropped his bag at the foot of the other bed in the room, though – _the white-canopy-covered bed, and what self-respecting man would ever use that?_ – making small talk and poking at Harry to see how he ticked without even bothering with introductions.

There was an undeniable classiness about Aziz, a sort of casual acceptance of the fact that he was highborn that set Harry’s teeth on edge, but he was coming at him with the wary eye and cocky confidence of a street thief. _Which was either going to prove interesting or stupid._

Aziz asked curiously, with a friendliness that Harry didn’t believe was sincere, “Do you have anything from home?”

Seeing his opportunity to knock the prince down a peg or two, Harry plucked his hook from his suitcase, whirling to hold it _just near_ Aziz’s right eye.

Harry wasn’t expecting what happened next, and he didn’t exactly _know_ what happened next, it was over so quickly. Aziz’s eyes went dark and cool, he grabbed Harry’s wrist in a wicked Chinese burn, pressing his fingers into a pressure point so that Harry’s hand spasmed and he dropped his hook and Aziz grabbed it the second he loosened his grip.

 _That wasn’t how that should’ve gone_ , Harry thought, but he couldn’t decide if he was angry or impressed as he looked at the prince’s calm smile. Loosening his shoulders and purposefully dropping his fighting stance, he held out his hand for his hook, half afraid this prince would be as likely to give it back as Jay had last been.

Aziz gave the hook back, his point sufficiently proven. “I don’t recommend trying it around here, but if it comes to it, you’ll find I have a fairly decent amount of training in street fighting tactics. My dad’s idea, so don’t tell my mom.” Harry blinked at him, still trying to decide what to make of him as Aziz added cheerfully, “Also for the record, I bet her sword is cooler than your hook.”

He gestured to Harriet’s sword, his remark startling a laugh out of Harriet before she suggested, “Come on, Harry; let’s go ask Jane where we can find Uma.”

“He can stay and unpack if he wants,” Aziz said, looking between the siblings. “Don’t leave on my account.” He smiled confidently. “We can handle each other, can’t we, Harry?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Harry hummed, his ice blue eyes still bright with anger as he thought of all the ways he was going to get back at Aziz for besting him.

“No,” Harriet drawled, reaching for Harry. “He’s coming with _me_ for now. Or,” she caught Harry’s eye, asking pointedly, “Don’t you want to find your girlfriend?”

_Oh, she was okay with him doing that now that she’d decided it was time, was she?_

Harry snapped himself out of his rage as he turned towards the door with Harriet muttering, “Fine.” _They was still going to find Uma, after all._

He was still irritated – it was like the universe was making fun of him, bringing him here to Auradon where any sane person would want to be ( _did that mean he was_ in _sane?_ ), but taking away the man he loved in the process, giving him the worst roommate and foster family imaginable in exchange. He could have three squares or two hands to hold – _pick one,_ the demons hissed from the edges of his nightmares… and more recently from his waking thoughts.

But then there was Uma. Uma, who could beat the demons in his mind back with either a tender touch or a vicious scream, who was known to use both methods in equal measure… who was here again, solidly in front of him and diving into his arms for a hug as soon as he’d opened them to her.

“Uma,” Harry breathed, feeling like a man whose head had just broken through the surface of the ocean after three weeks underwater. “Gods, I’ve missed you.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how much you guys have noticed, but this story is very intertwined with Harriet's and will take place entirely within the same time period that's covered in Harriet's story, if that bears mentioning.

“Missed you, too,” Uma muttered against his chest, holding onto Harry a little longer than Harry held onto her, and that was saying something. _It was saying that something wasn’t quite right with her._

“You okay?” he checked.

“Yes and no,” Uma replied. “I wasn’t, and then I was, and now I’m not, I’m… aggravated again, but I’ll figure it out.”

“You always do,” Harry reminded her quietly.

“How about you?” Uma asked him, stepping back from him, and deflecting for now – _probably because Harriet was still in the room_ – and Harry let her do it.

“I mean, I’m fine now. We got the most boring foster family _ever_ , and I have a roommate that’s just as terrible, but as long as you’re here, I’m fine.” And he found that he meant it. For as weird as his brain could get sometimes, having someone around who knew how to control his storm even on the days when she was so bad that he couldn’t return the favor… it helped him.

Uma took his hand and smiled fleetingly at him before groaning, “Oh, _your_ roommate’s bad! Did you see the names on that nameplate?” When Harry shook his head, Uma demanded, “Go look. I don’t know who you got, but it’s better than me.”

Harriet walked out of Uma’s room, and Harry went out with her, just long enough to check the nameplate as requested. _“Audrey & Uma” Ah. That explained all the pink in the room._

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Harry said, returning to Uma to run his hands over her arms as she huffed in irritation. “Just… _scare_ her into submission or something.”

Dryly, she informed him, “I doubt that would go over very well with His Royal Highness, Prince Javan Ababwa of Lone Keep and Agrabah.”

It genuinely took Harry a second to realize who she meant, but when he did, he only gave her his most devilish smile. “You don’t expect me to care about that minor detail, do you?”

“I do,” Uma stepped back towards her bed, fixed him with the look of a captain giving out orders. “We’re here to make a good impression, Harry. Remember? For the crew, for the other VKs. We don’t have to like it; we just have to do it. They’ll listen as long as we stay on their good side.”

 _This was really the gist of her plan to get the other VKs over here?_ Harry thought dubiously. He kept his doubts to himself and, _only_ because it was Uma, he nodded. “Whatever you want, Uma.”

She stepped closer again, seeing his skepticism even when he didn’t voice it, and instead of being upset, she looked at him like she loved him even more for going along with her despite it. “What I want,” she said as he put his arms back around her. “Is for you to find a way to be happy here… and playing along sometimes helps more than I thought it would – and in the long run, it _does_ help us get the other VKs on this side of the bridge.”

Harry didn’t say anything as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. He was beyond grateful to have her back, but he wasn’t sure how to tell her that he wasn’t prepared to play a long game to get Gil back, too.

There was a gasp from right outside the dorm room door, and even with his back to the door, Harry could tell by Uma’s expression alone that Princess Audrey had arrived. Uma gave the other girl a sharp smile and little finger wave, not bothering to leave Harry’s embrace as she did it.

The princess snapped, “You’re kidding,” and was gone as quickly as she’d appeared.

“Come now, Uma,” Harry coaxed mischievously. “You know you could have a little fun with her…”

Uma allowed herself a small smirk as she looked back up at him, her own eyes lighting up as she agreed, “Maybe just a little.”

* * *

It was the next afternoon before Harry realized that he’d never gotten around to asking Uma what had been the matter when they’d first reunited. He’d spent most of the day in Uma’s room, just talking to her – and occasionally bickering with her, he would admit – and ignoring the occasional moments when a disgruntled Princess Audrey ducked into – and then quickly out of – the room. When he thought to question what the issue had been the night before, he asked her.

It should’ve been that simple, but Uma was only partially through her explanation of the incomplete database and Ben’s ignoring her when Princess Audrey came back in to change for dinner. Rolling her eyes at the mere sight of Audrey, Uma made the mistake of continuing her tale.

Though she’d clearly been set to ignore their conversation, as she had been doing all day, the princess suddenly turned from her closet and said, “Now, wait a second! That’s not fair, and you should know it by now. Especially you, Uma. For one thing, the ILD is important to Ben, and I doubt that he would purposefully leave their information incomplete. For another thing, he’s _really_ busy. Not everything is about you guys; he has a whole country to run. If you really need to get a message to him, then _leave a message_ like everybody else.”

“Listen, princess—” There was a knock at the door, so Harry jumped off the bed to answer it as Uma started to argue with Princess Audrey.

Every time the girls had spoken to each other today, it had ended in an argument, and Harry was beginning to feel fed up with it at best and out of his depth at worst.

He hadn’t been so relieved to see Harriet in years, he admitted to himself, opening the door and hissing, “I love Uma, and you know I do, but _help me_. Calming her is _Gil’s_ job.”

Harriet, as it turned out, was no more capable of controlling Hurricane Uma than Harry felt he was by that point, but he was just glad there was someone else in the room with the girls too, now.


	5. Chapter 5

Somehow, this round, Uma and Audrey’s bickering culminated in Uma getting the bright idea to take them all to Ben’s office. They talked about the database and came up with a plan to return to the Isle that would ultimately fix the issue to Uma’s satisfaction.

 _They were going to be able to see Gil_ ; Harry’s thoughts thrummed with happiness at the idea of having both of his loves in the same place again.

Then Princess Audrey asked about her roommate situation and was put in her place with a familiarity from the king that Harry personally found _fantastic_. Uma was declared future queen of the Isle – Harry loved that even more for her – and Harriet was officially enlisted into the ILD.

He was a little less sure how he felt about that, even though he could admit that she was a good choice for the job. Harriet knew the Isle well, and she knew the VKs better.

As Harriet looked down at the tablet Mal had handed his sister, Harry forgot to care about her as he asked Ben accusingly, the words leaving his mouth as the thought came to mind, “What about me?!”

“What about you?” King Ben asked him, meeting Harry’s gaze as Princess Audrey sat down in her boyfriend’s lap.

Jay’s hand fell comfortably onto Audrey’s hip as he glanced over his shoulder at Harry, a smirk at the edges of his mouth that Harry suddenly wanted to swipe away with his hooked hand.

“If you really handed down our roommate assignments, why did you stick me with _Prince Prissy_?”

“What?” King Ben asked again.

Jay choked on a laugh as Harriet suggested, “Don’t ask. He means Prince _Aziz_.” She shot Harry a look that he ignored.

“Hold on,” Jay held up a hand. “Before you answer that, Ben, I’m going to need an explanation of that nickname.” He looked to be holding back laughter as he informed Harry, “I’m not objecting, I may not even defend him right now, but I will need an explanation for purely fraternal purposes.”

Harry shrugged, unamused as he asked, “Have you _seen_ the bed canopy… thing? It looks like something from a… a bloody bridal suite! Who uses those things?!”

“Do you want the actual answer?” Jay offered.

“Not particularly,” Harry admitted dryly.

“If you just want something to give him hell over, I respect that, too, but there are so many better things you could choose, man.”

Harry looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “You’re willing to help me make him more miserable? I expected better from you somehow.”

Jay shook his head. “You’re not going to make Aziz miserable; he can handle you.”

“Oh, he proved that the minute he stepped into their dorm room,” Harriet informed the room cheerfully, and Harry slowly turned to give her the most scathing glare he could manage.

King Ben cleared his throat from behind his desk, a small smile on his face as he pointed out, “And _that_ is why I asked for you and Aziz to be assigned the same room. It sounds like you didn’t take an immediate liking to him, but I’m sure you already know that he’s… got a unique way of… connecting with VKs. He’s not your traditional ‘prissy’ prince. Like Jay said, he can handle you, and somehow, I think that’ll be good for both of you. And, really, be honest, you’ll enjoy the challenge he presents, won’t you?”

Harry glared at the king, too, now, and didn’t answer him.

“Ben?” Evie asked carefully. “What about Dizzy? I requested her as my roommate – which Mal knew, so it wasn’t an issue with her – and I know you put kids from different years together, like Harriet and Jordan, so it wasn’t that… but Dizzy ended up with Jane. Is there a reason for that?”

Ben sobered a little as he said slowly, “There are a couple reasons for that decision, yeah, and it was actually kind of a group decision.”

“With who?” Evie asked, eyebrows drawing together.

“Just Jane and I.”

“I’m not trying to argue,” Evie said carefully. “And I know that Jane’s thrilled to have Dizzy, and Dizzy says Jane is nice – because of course she is – but… Dizzy’s like a little sister to me, and I don’t… I don’t understand.”

“Like I said, there were a couple thoughts at play when it came to Dizzy’s roommate. Obviously, she’s young, even for a freshman, so that needed to be part of the conversation.”

“Right, which is why I think that someone familiar would be good for her, comforting, you know?”

Ben nodded. “I understand that. But,” he drew in a breath, let it out slowly. “Frankly, we also wanted to consider your situation, too.” Ben glanced around before he suggested, “Why don’t you come back by in an hour once I’m back to my paperwork, and—”

Evie was already shaking her head, hurt starting to shine in her eyes. “No, it’s not that big of a deal, I just want to understand the decision that was made.”

“The decision was made,” Ben said hurriedly, “In part because you have a lot on your plate – with more coming, hopefully – and, once we’d reached _that_ decision, Jane offered to—to sort of take Dizzy in, because she’d noticed some… familiar… behavioral patterns.”

Evie looked more confused than ever. “’Behavioral patterns?’ Like, Dizzy and Jane are alike? I mean… I can see it a little, but—”

“He means that Jane saw signs of abuse that she had an idea of how to deal with,” Carlos informed Evie flatly. “Somewhere between the cigarette burns on her arms from Lady Tremaine and the fact that she was used as a servant in her own home.”

“Oh.” Her eyes widening in understanding, Evie turned to Carlos.

 _Carlos, who had the same type of burns on his arms, and a long, well-known history of being used as Cruella’s own housekeeper. Carlos, who was Jane’s boyfriend, and had, from what little he had cared to notice, come quite far out of his shell since moving to the mainland. Had Jane helped him heal from Mommy’s abuse, maybe?_ Harry wondered.

“Do you have anymore questions?” Carlos asked Evie warily.

She did, even Harry could see it in her eyes, but had the good sense to shake her head. “No,” she said in a small voice. “I get it.”

“Are you sure?” Carlos asked.

She nodded.


	6. Chapter 6

“Well,” Mal said, standing up from Ben’s lap. “As much as I enjoyed this dinner break, I think it’s time that we let our beloved king get back to work.” There was a murmur of agreements and, as they began to file out, Mal kissed Ben, asking, “You need anything before I go?” Ben glanced at Evie in silence, and Mal asked cautiously, “Hey, E, can you hold up for a second?”

Behind Harry, Evie sighed heavily and turned to go back into the office with only Ben and Mal still inside.

“Uh-oh…” Harry sang.

“Shut _up_ ,” Carlos snapped. “You guys have no _idea_ what’s going on right now.”

Harry turned sharply to Carlos, as ready to fight as ever when he was presented with half a chance. “You mean like King Adam’s precious Legume ban, and how that’s affecting Gil, Grayson, and the others?” At Carlos’ shocked expression, he stepped closer to the other boy, growling under his breath, “Oh, yeah, Uma told me about that while she was in Triton’s Bay.” _And it hadn’t helped his overall mood, to say the least – then or now._

There was a strong hand gathering up a fistful of his collar, and he was jerked roughly away from Carlos. Jay, stepping in between them as he pointed out, “It’s not like it’s our fault, least of all Carlos, so _back off_.”

 _Alright, he’d fight Jay, then. Smear the shiny new prince’s image a little._ “Make me,” Harry bit out. “Or are you afraid _your_ crown’ll start slippin’ too?”

Jay scoffed, not giving him the decency of a real response as Uma grabbed Harry’s arm and physically pulled him away from the other VKs. “What was that?” she demanded. “You were _fine,_ and then what happened?”

“I dunno, I’m just stressed, an’—an’ if they’re babyin’ _Evie_ over th’ fucked up ban, bu’ they expect us t’—t’ just—I dunno, it’s just _Jay_ , anyway.”

“No,” Harriet stepped up behind them, quietly inserting herself into the conversation, and Harry almost turned around and decked her for the fun of it. “It wasn’t Jay, and it wasn’t Carlos, either. You haven’t had a real mood swing like that in a couple of weeks.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Are you tryin’ t’ tell me you’ve not seen me mad in a couple weeks, ‘cause, love, tha’s _all_ I’ve been.”

“When it makes sense, Harry. You’ve been mad, but you’ve had _some_ sort of reason for it, _except_ for just now.” Harriet eyed him, asking, “When was the last time you took your meds?”

He scoffed. “Couple days ago. Wha’s it matter?”

“Did you _bring_ your meds, Harry?”

“Sure. They’re in my suitcase.” _Buried under his bed, all the better to forget about them. After all, he’d been taking them in a bid to exasperate the Darlings, not because he thought they helped him._

“You need to take them.”

“Oh, _get lost_.”

“Are they actually helping?” Uma asked, looking between Harry and Harriet like she didn’t care who answered.

“Of course not,” Harry said dismissively.

“I know that’s what you told me over the phone, but, Harriet, you think they are?”

Harriet nodded. “He’s been taking them for a couple weeks, and they’ve helped the mood swings if nothing else.”

“It doesn’t feel like it to me, the person taking them,” Harry snapped.

“That’s because you didn’t listen to what the pills are supposed to do. They’re not to make you feel _happy,_ or whatever, they’re mood _stabilizers._ No more mood _swings_. So even though you’re sad, that’s you being sad; it’s not you being sad for five minutes, then mad about it, then happy you kicked the dog, and energized enough to punch holes in the walls, then sad because you didn’t get the reaction you wanted, and starting all over again. You in your own brain are just sad, and that makes sense right now, because you’ve been uprooted from your home and your boyfriend and your crew, so just… be sad, but don’t be fifteen things in the same hour, ‘cause that’s not healthy, and that’s what the pills are _for_.”

Harry rolled his eyes, shrugging both girls off as he walked away.

“Harry, wait.” Uma jogged to catch up to him. “Harry!”

“What?!”

“Take the pills,” Uma said quietly.

“No, they’re stupid.”

She shrugged. “Then they’ll be stupid, and you’ll prove Harriet wrong and get her off your back. And if she is right, and they help you, then _you’re_ stupid if you don’t take the help they offer.”

Harry rolled his eyes, but this time when he walked away, Uma let him.

* * *

To make the whole thing even _better_ , Aziz was sitting on his bed when Harry came into their room, water bottle raised to his lips as he swallowed a pill. Harry snorted, slamming the door closed and kicking his boots off.

Aziz raised his eyebrows, watching the enraged movements as he swallowed the water and whatever he’d taken from the pill bottle on his nightstand. “So…” he drawled. “How was your first day at Auradon Prep?”

Harry picked one of his boots up and threw it at Aziz, and when Aziz jumped off the bed to dodge it, bringing him near enough to Harry, Harry swung at him. Aziz grabbed his wrist, spun him off-balance, and forced him to his knees, shoving his arm painfully high against his back.

“Come on,” Aziz said, drawing in a breath. “We both know that was a terrible punch. You were off-balance, off-center, fighting mad, and when you fight mad, you fight sloppy. Besides, I told you, don’t fight me. I don’t like violence, but I know how to use it. Please quit making me use it. Now, if I let you up, are you going to behave, or are we going to do this all again?”

Part of Harry wanted to throw his head back into Aziz’s face and make him bleed, flip their positions, and show him who was in charge here, but he was so tired, kneeling in the carpet and catching his breath, that he gave himself permission not to bother. _Just this once._ “Let me up,” he said, and enough of his tiredness was in his tone that Aziz released his hold and offered him a hand up instead.

Harry glared and slapped his hand away, grabbing the footboard of his bed for leverage instead as he moved onto his feet.


	7. Chapter 7

Aziz was watching him carefully – not quite wary, more like he was trying to figure Harry out. _Good luck with that; maybe he’d have better luck than Harry was having with himself right now._

“You gonna tell Fairy Godmother?” Harry asked, sitting on the edge of his bed. “Because I won’t care if you do.”

“Nah.” Aziz sat down on his bed across from Harry, neither one of them knowing what to say to the other, so Harry just looked away, kicking at the bedframe. He wanted to go back to Uma, but if he did, she’d ask if he’d taken a pill yet. Aziz pointed out, “You never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“How was your first day at Auradon Prep?”

He almost sounded like he actually cared, which was a stupid idea on a couple of levels, but answering the question was better than sitting in silence, so Harry said, “Fine.” And it really had been, which made his current mood that much more baffling.

“Aren’t you going to ask me how my day was?” Aziz suggested, a dry edge to his tone.

 _He wanted Harry to ask a question, did he?_ From beneath his hair, he eyed the bottle on Aziz’s nightstand, asking, “What’s that?”

Aziz followed Harry’s line of sight, picking up the bottle and tossing it into the air before he caught it. “This?” Harry nodded, and Aziz opened the drawer in the nightstand, tossed the bottle in, and shut the drawer. “Melatonin.”

“What’s that?” _Was Prince Prissy also a pill-popper? How interesting…_

Seeing the glint in Harry’s eyes, Aziz smirked, assuring him, “It’s just a sleep aid. I don’t use it all the time, but it helps me sleep better the first few nights here – in a different bed, different time zone, with jet lag, and everything.”

“Aww, poor uncomfortable prince-y,” Harry goaded. “I slept on a mattress a fourth of this size _with_ two other people, and my worst enemy in the boat a skip, a hop, and a jump away, with no pills in sight.”

“Which isn’t right, and sucks for you guys,” Aziz allowed. “But don’t mock it. Here we have medication to help us, so why shouldn’t we take advantage of it? Isn’t that why you’re here in the first place – so you have those things available to you, too?”

“Something like that,” Harry muttered. “But I still think it’s silly.”

“Are you sure? Logically, isn’t it important for your friends to come here and gain that advantage only if those things – like pills, among the rest of it – are actually advantageous?”

Harry narrowed his eyes but, with his lesson learned just enough, he resisted the urge to throw his other boot at his roommate.

Aziz stretched before he got off his bed, announcing, “Now, I have about twenty-five minutes before I am going to be dead to the world, so I’m going to change and make some tea.” He nodded to the kettle and hotplate that Harry hadn’t noticed before, sitting atop the prince’s minifridge – _gods, some of these kids had no_ idea _how good they had it, did they?_ “Do you want some?”

“I do not,” Harry promised him. “But good night, and good riddance.”

* * *

An hour later, assured by their conversation that Aziz would be fast asleep, Harry pulled his suitcase out from under his bed, swallowed one of the stupid, “advantageous” pills, and tossed his own pill bottle into his nightstand drawer.

* * *

Now that he was paying attention, and though he would _never_ admit it unless the question was _very directly asked_ , by that weekend, he could admit to _himself_ Harriet might have been right about the pills. There were no quick fixes, no sudden or magical changes… but then, that was supposed to be the point of his pills, right. _If_ Harriet was right.

* * *

They’d been gone from the Isle for a month. Suddenly, once he was there once again, somehow one month felt like being away for too long and not long enough all at once. He’d missed how easy it was to cause a little chaos around here, he’d missed Gil, and the crew, and even the ship herself.

But people weren’t looking at them the same way around here. They were regarded as oddities now, not leaders; they were sideshows to stare at, not forces to be reckoned with and feared. It made Harry nervous, and though he’d never admit to the nerves, he walked with his hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword the whole way to the pier.

The nerves were more than worth it, though, as he stepped aboard the Lost Revenge, Alfonso calling out, “ _Captain_ aboard!” as Gil barreled out of the captain’s quarters and pulled Harry and Uma both into a tight hug.

“You _guys_! You’re back!” he breathed, kissing them both in turn before he pulled them back into the group hug – and group hug it became, as – since it was okay for Gil to do – other crewmembers began to throw themselves into the hug.

 _Neva, Le Fou, Cai, Fang, even Ule and Ula_ —Harry stopped counting and started laughing. Mood stabilizers be damned, in that moment, he was _happy_.

But the moment had to end; they were here on a mission after all. Uma wormed her way out of the middle of them all, and Harry kept an arm around Gil as she said, “Cai, Fang, can we talk?”

She nodded towards the ship’s bow, where they could go for just a bit of privacy, and Cai, Fang, and her boys followed her there.

 _Her boys,_ Harry smiled to himself at the thought. A month ago, he’d taken it for granted that that’s what they were – he and Gil were Uma’s, and they all knew it. He and Gil were planets who were happy to orbit their sun… but it turned out that it was a lonely orbit to travel without another planet at his side to make the trip with him.

 _For now, though,_ Harry reminded himself, leaning into Gil where they stood, _for the moment, they were together again._


	8. Chapter 8

It took less convincing than Harry had expected it to for Fang and Cai to agree to lead their expedition into the Huns’ turf. Fang agreed because that was who Fang was; someone needed help in a situation where muscles would also be useful, and that was right up their alley. Cai took a bit to come around, but she was glad enough to see Uma that she agreed to it for her captain, just like they all always did.

When they stepped back into the middle of the deck, Rick Ratcliffe surveyed their serious expressions before he asked, “Whatever you’re doing, do you want help, captain?”

Uma considered the offer for a moment as she watched other members of their crew rally around them. “As much as I want to say ‘yes,’” she blew out a breath, and Harry knew that she was making a difficult call – a call that could potentially affect whether people lived or died going into the mines with the crazy Huns. “No. Stay here; we’re already a big enough group to make things suspicious and draw attention to ourselves, and I don’t want to make that worse.”

“Are you sure?” Clay asked.

Gil shot him a sharply reproving look over Uma’s shoulder as Uma said, “Yes.”

“Okay,” Clay said, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

“We’re planning on coming back before we leave,” Uma said, looking around at the crew. “But if we don’t,” she paused, her gaze flickering over every familiar face on the Lost Revenge in a moment of rare, real humanity in front of the crew. “It was good to see you all. We haven’t forgotten you guys, and if I have my way, you’ll be on the other side of the barrier sooner rather than later.”

It was Neva who spoke up, assuring her, “We know.”

Uma nodded a thanks at that comment, then led the way towards the gangplank. “Come on, then; let’s go get Harriet.”

* * *

As they walked from the pier to the old mining tunnels, with Gil declaring that he wanted Ben at his back for this fight, Uma grabbed Gil’s arm and pulled him back to where she was walking alongside Harry. “Are you positive you wanna do that?”

“Yeah,” Gil smiled softly down at her. Under his breath, he said, “Uma, you know what he is.”

“Oh, yes, I do know what he is,” Uma repeated just as quietly, an edge creeping into her tone. “I just don’t want you dying for the guy whose family is actively fighting to keep you trapped here.”

“Uma,” Harry objected, surprised that she would worry Gil with the reality of the Legume ban when he couldn’t do anything about it.

She blinked, and Harry realized as she did that she hadn’t actually meant to say anything about it. It was too late now, thought, as Gil’s eyebrows drew together and he asked, “What do you mean?”

Uma shook her head. “I don’t mean anything, Gilly.”

Gil arched an eyebrow. “You don’t call me ‘Gilly;’ Harry does, but you only call me that when something’s really wrong, so what are you talking about? I can handle it, Uma.”

 _He believed him_ , Harry realized. There was something different about Gil, he’d changed somehow in the past month, and Harry had noticed it right away. Either he’d gotten taller, or he’d learned how to stand a little straighter, and looking at him right now, meeting Uma’s gaze fearlessly, Harry saw that it really was the latter. Without Uma and Harry here to protect him, Gil had come into himself as a leader in his own right.

Harry felt a swell of pride that he couldn’t put into words as Gil pressed, “I wanna know, Uma.”

Uma sighed regretfully, pulling Gil’s arm around her shoulders, and walking between him and Harry as she explained the Legume ban to one of the people that it was being leveraged against.

* * *

They made it into and out of the Huns’ turf, with all the DNA tests, a little unexpected backup, a couple sprained ankles, and one only nearly-dead (but not, how, Hades?) princess to show for it. There was a minor run-in with Gaston and his terrible twins, a major victory of sorts for Evie, and Harry noticed just a minute before everyone else that he was getting his first Christmas present early this year.

 _Gil was on the bus! Sitting across the aisle close enough that Harry could touch him, Gil was on the bus!_ They passed through the barrier _into mainland Auradon_ and _Gil was still on the bus!_ He’d seen the brotherly bonding happening today between Gil and Ben; maybe, if they all just stayed quiet and let it happen, Ben wouldn’t throw Gil back underneath the dome. _It didn’t seem like a King Ben thing to do, honestly. If Gil_ got _to the school, Ben would let him_ stay _there._ Harry knew it in his bones, and he didn’t dare even look across the aisle at the brothers in case they saw something of his glee in his eyes.

Then the clod, his too-good-for-the-world boyfriend, spoke up uncertainly, “Hey, guys?”

Harry’s glee slid away like oil over water, and he knew immediately what Gil was doing. “Shut up, Gil,” Harry hissed. “Don’t say a word, just stay _shut up_.”

 _If he could just_ let it happen…

“And then what happens?” Gil asked Harry quietly as Gil reached out and took Harry’s hand across the aisle.

 _He really had grown so much already in Harry and Uma’s time on the mainland –_ and right now, Harry hated it with everything he had.

His instinct about the king had been right, though, Harry saw that much in the struggle that passed over King Ben’s face, the determination that he finally landed on as he began to offer, “Gil, if you want t—”

Gil _turned him down. The idiot. Didn’t he understand that if he just came to the boarding school, too, then everything would be so much better? For him, and for Harry and Uma, too? They were better together, and they needed him…_

…But so did the Isle, and the VKs, and in the end, with quiet whispers for Ben and Evie and kisses for Harry and Uma, Gil asked Sultana Jasmine to drive the bus back through the barrier, and he got out, disappearing into the crowd.

Harry pressed his forehead against a window of the bus and told himself he couldn’t scream yet. _But, gods, did he want to._


	9. Chapter 9

Absolutely _nothing_ got better from there on out. For a while, nothing particularly got worse except for Harry’s dark mood, but nothing got better. For anyone.

Evie threw the entirety of her horrible tale at King Adam and Belle, and King Beast didn’t even care. King Ben’s relationship with his “father” became so bad that he quietly moved into the school, and King Beast still wouldn’t budge on the ban.

Li Lonnie and Chad Charming noticed the VKs black moods and introduced them to their imperfect little hangout in the dungeon, but it didn’t help anyone the way Harry knew they’d hoped it would. In fact, he was pretty sure it made King Ben even worse, to have something else added to the long list of things on his mind.

And then. _Then,_ because no one had suffered enough, one of Captain Hook’s godawful crewmen went and killed Fawn Frollo in the middle of a derailed attempt to kidnap Grayson Legume for Gaston.

When news of it reached the VKs gathered with Mrs. Radcliffe in the ILD office, Harry was genuinely afraid of Harriet’s reaction, afraid at first that his older sister was having some sort of panic attack. He had shared a personal hell with Harriet aboard the Jolly Roger for the first eleven years of his life, and he hadn’t seen her cry like this since he was six and she seven, the night their mom was killed.

Somehow, her tears worried him now as much as they had then.

With Uma hugging his sister, Harry squeezed Harriet’s shoulder, reminding her, “Breathe, Harriet; you have to breathe, or you’re gonna pass out. Put your head between your knees and take a couple deep breaths for me, sis. You—”

“What the hell do you mean, ‘dead?’” Harriet burst out around her tears. “ _How_?”

As Mrs. Radcliffe explained, a wave of nausea built up in Harry’s stomach, and he didn’t blame Harriet in the least for running out.

When he moved to follow her, Uma grabbed his hand to stop him. “Let her go. One of her kids _died_ ; she’s going to need time to process.”

Harry nodded, moving to wrap his arms around Uma instead, but she took a half-step away. She didn’t want held right now, he realized, registering the look in her eyes in the second before she turned to King Ben. She was livid, and she wanted answers.

“What are we gonna do?” she demanded.

The young king crossed his arms over his chest, a movement that was either fear or defensiveness; Harry couldn’t tell which, and for the moment he wasn’t sure he cared. “I know it sounds callous to say right away, but let’s fill the gap left by Fawn not coming to Auradon by bringing CJ over in the next group instead. Maybe that’ll help Harriet.”

“I mean what are you gonna do _right now_ to fix this?!” Uma snapped.

Ben checked his watch before he raked his hands through his hair. “Right now,” he said carefully. “I am going to go make a couple phone calls before I join my mother for her teatime in her private library.”

Uma became so enraged that she was speechless as she watched Ben walk out. She followed him out as Harry followed her. “What do you mean _teatime_?” she snarled. “People – _children_ – are _dying_! If they went after Grayson once, they _will_ do it again.”

As he ducked into his office next door, Ben said, “I know that” and then shut the door in their faces, locking it for good measure.

Even with Uma pounding on the door, Harry heard Ben saying calmly, “Hi, Phillip. It’s Ben.”

_He really was making phone calls, wasn’t he?_

“Come on,” Harry said darkly, taking Uma by the shoulders and turning her away from the door. “If he’s gonna be like that, he’s not worth bothering with right now.”

* * *

The next week was horrible. The Darlings came and went, and in a way their visit helped him, but the general mood amongst their group had found new lows to reach. Harry couldn’t even bring himself to talk to Ben, which was better than Uma, who refused to so much as look his way.

Not that looking at him helped anyone anyway; King Ben looked perhaps worse than any of them, and after the way he had brushed Uma off, Harry couldn’t have cared less.

So, when Ben texted him Friday morning and asked him to come down to the parking garage, Harry almost didn’t go. It was only because the message had been sent to all the VKs that his curiosity was piqued enough for him to roll out of bed and shove his feet into his boots.

He was genuinely surprised to see Uma coming with Mal, Evie, and Harriet when they all met him at the base of the stairs as they headed towards the parking garage.

When he mentioned his surprise, she said, “Bubblegum shoved me out of our room, _locked the door_ , and told me I wasn’t allowed back in until I’d checked in with Ben.”

“She’s tired of you being malicious,” Mal pointed out.

“ _I’m_ being malicious?” Uma asked heatedly. “You saw what he did the day we heard Fawn had died!”

“Yes, but I _know_ Ben. He doesn’t… always… show emotions in public. He felt the loss the same as anyone else.”

Harry very much doubted that.

“I don’t care what he felt,” Uma said. “I want to know what he’s _doing_ about it.”

“In order to figure that out, you’d have to talk to him, wouldn’t you?” Mal shot back.

“And how much good has that been doing you?” Evie suddenly asked Mal. “Because last time I checked, he was spending his week in some weird social isolation where he was refusing to talk to all of us just as much as anyone in a pirate hat was refusing to talk to him.”

“That’s not true,” Jay said, and Harry didn’t like that he hadn’t noticed the boy join the back of the pack with Doug as they walked. “He’s talked to me a little.”

“Really?” Doug commented. “Good for you. He told me the day we heard about Fawn to cancel all his appointments until further notice, with no explanation given, and I haven’t heard from him since.”

“So, tell us, Mal,” Uma requested sharply. “What’s Benny Boo up to?”


	10. Chapter 10

Mal shook her head, looking more troubled than ever. “Nobody knows. He’s not even been in his classes; he’s doing the work remotely. Whatever he’s doing, though, I don’t think it’s been good for him.”

Which was why it was such a shock to go out into the parking garage and see King Ben sitting on the _hood_ of the white bus, in his full VK outfit, tossing the keys into the air and catching them while he beamed with unrestrained glee.

“Ben?” Mal asked worriedly.

Harry cackled. “He’s finally lost his marbles!”

As Mal glared at Harry, Jay pressed Ben carefully, “What’s going on, buddy?”

“How do you guys feel about committing a little light treason?” Ben asked them.

“Treason?” Uma repeated, eyebrows flying up as she forgot that she wasn’t talking to Ben right now.

“It’s only slightly treason, but I wouldn’t ask anyone else to come with me except I never exactly learned how to drive—”

“Then I will be taking those.” Jay reached out and grabbed the keys midair before they could fall back into Ben’s hand.

“—And there’s safety in numbers, anyway, right?”

“On the Isle?” Uma asked, catching onto that much of King Ben’s disjointed explanation.

Ben nodded at her as Mal asked, “How is something only ‘light’ treason?”

“Because believe it,” Ben raised his eyebrows towards Uma and Harry. “ _Or not_ , I am as impatient as any of you. So, the minute that I had it on record that we won, I want to act like we won.”

“’We won?’” Doug asked. “Ben… what? What are you talking about ‘we won?’”

“We almost won. I have it on verbal promise that next time the council for it meets the law will be changed. My mom’s vote and four others will change, and we will have won then, but that’s not for another ten weeks, and I don’t want to wait until it’s official. I want to go now, so—” he hopped off the hood of the bus and opened the bus door, indicating they should get in.

“Is there any possibility that he’s drunk?” Carlos whispered to Mal.

“Carlos,” Ben said. “I haven’t been this happy since – in a way that has nothing to do with any of you – before my parents found out that Jay was Jasmine’s son. I am over the moon happy - giddy, in fact - but that’s it, and I’m sorry if it’s not making sense.”

Peering nervously into the bus, as if he were afraid to get on it, Doug asked, “Ben… why’s there a carse-shit!” He whipped around to face Ben, eyes wide, and Ben laughed.

“Wait,” Evie realized softly. There was an unsteady hope in her eyes as she turned to Ben and asked shakily, “We won?”

For a second, Ben’s smile was only for her as he promised, “We won.”

“You struck down the Legume ban,” Uma stated.

Ben nodded eagerly, before he took a calming breath and said, “I know my reaction earlier this week was… out of step with how I felt, and I came across completely wrong, and I’m sorry for that. And I’m sorry that I was so weird this week, too, I went so far into my head trying to work things out with my mom, and with my dad, too, honestly, I just… was not in any sort of state to be around other people. I’m sorry if I freaked any of you out.”

“All’s forgiven,” Harry promised hurriedly, ducking around Uma and Doug to jump into the bus. “Get in, losers; we have Legumes to get!”

Ben sat in the seat behind Jay, and, across from Ben, Harry heard the thief ask, “How did this happen?” as he started the bus once everyone was seated.

“I… well, I begged my parents, really, and we essentially took a week out of our own lives to sit in therapy, together and separately, and we talked through a lot of things – in therapy and in private. This week, I heard my parents have their first… was it really? Yeah, their first ever healthy conversation about…” he drew in a breath. “ _His_ attack on my mom. I don’t _think_ that my dad had ever… _really_ heard my mom before, when she tried to talk about it, so years ago we all just stopped talking about it, because it felt like there was no point. Mom and Dad obviously hadn’t been receptive to my trying to bring it up again, but the way that my dad handled my bringing it up started to create real problems between the three of us. There were points this summer, up until this week, where I was afraid for their marriage… where I was afraid for my _mom_. Whether or not those fears were unfounded, they were fears that I had, and at some point I realized I – along with my parents – needed professional help. I asked for it, we got it, and… we more or less attacked the entirety of the situation with Gaston, me, my parents, the ban, my siblings, all of it.

“I know Mal thinks it was a bad idea, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t bad, it was just… _the_ hardest week of my life. But I’m definitely on the mend now, not all the way better, but I’m getting there.”

“Still seeing that shrink?” Harriet asked from the seat behind Harry and Uma.

Ben nodded. “Having a therapist has been really helpful, and truthfully, I wish I’d started seeing her sooner.”

“Interesting.”

Harry could feel Harriet’s pointed gaze drilling a hole through the back of his head, and he couldn’t even care because they were going to get _Gil! Weren’t they?_ “Who are we picking up, anyway?” Harry asked as the thought occurred to him.

“Gil, Grayson, and Blanche are all on such short notice, I think,” Ben answered. “They won’t even know we’re coming for them, as it is.”

“Does Fairy Godmother know they’re coming back to the school?” Doug asked, holding up his cellphone to show Fairy Godmother on his caller ID.

Ben nodded. “That will be her calling you to ask what sort of living arrangements you guys want, considering Grayson’s presence in your lives.”

“Why call Doug, though?” Evie asked as Doug answered his phone with the same question in his eyes.

Ben grinned. “She thought you might be too excited, when she heard that you were being reunited with your son.”

“Oh,” Evie nodded, but her smile slipped at the edges.

Seeing it, Ben assured her, “That’s all she knows – that you’re being reunited with your son – and Fairy Godmother’s the only person I talked to about anything at all. She’s seeing to accommodations for them at the school – if that’s where you’ll want Grayson – but I didn’t have time to explain much to her, and I wasn’t sure how much of it would be within my rights to explain in the first place.

“Thanks, Ben,” Evie said gratefully.

He nodded as Doug pulled his phone away from his ear to ask his girlfriend, “Hey, uh, Evie? Love of my life and keeper of my heart and soul? Do you… want to move in together?”


	11. Chapter 11

_“They won’t even know we’re coming for them, as it is.”_ Ben’s simple observation turned out to be a bigger deal than any of them had thought about in the moment.

“Captain aboard!” Alfonso called from the crow’s nest as the visitors to the Isle all came aboard the Lost Revenge, and Gil turned from surveying the water off the bow to look at them in confused delight.

“Hi, guys!” he said cheerfully as the crew crowded around the visitors.

“We beat the Legume ban, Gil!” Harry blurted out. “We’ve come to take you back to the mainland with us.”

Gil blinked at them in disbelief as Ben added apologetically, “Sorry, I didn’t take the time to write out an official invitation.” As an aside to himself, he realized under his breath, “Or tell Mrs. Radcliffe what was going on.”

When the next emotion to flash through Gil’s eyes was irritation, Harry tensed, sensing that something was about to go wrong – _but how could something go wrong when it was all falling so beautifully into place?!_

Gil pointed to Ben, Uma, and Harry as he said, “I need to talk to you three in the captain’s quarters, please.”

 _Something was definitely going wrong here._ They trooped into the captain’s quarters anyway, and when Gil pointed to the bed, the other three sat, tucking their legs out of the way in the cramped space so that he could stand in front of them.

“You guys, we talked about this,” Gil said right off. “I’m needed _here_. If you beat the Legume ban, and if it’s gone – the right way?” He looked to Ben and waited for the king’s confirming nod before he continued, “Then absolutely get Grayson out of here, and any of the others with him. Take Blanche if she’ll go, but someone needs to stay and lead the VKs.”

Harry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re giving up the chance to go to the mainland? To go to Auradon Prep? To be back with _Uma and I_? I don’t believe it.”

“Me neither,” Mick declared, forcing open the door to the captain’s quarters.

The rest of the crew was crowded around the door, where they’d clearly been listening in, and Uma scoffed in amusement despite herself.

“You’re not giving up a chance to go to the mainland, Gil,” Rick Ratcliffe declared. “You’ve been a _great_ captain… but I think we can all agree that it’s felt… temporary, right?” he looked behind him to his crewmates, who were all nodding their agreement.

“Maybe that’s because we all knew that you were going to go, too,” Michael suggested.

“Guys,” Gil tried. “I appreciate it, but we all also know that you still need a steady leader.”

“Yeah.” Fang pointed out, “But it doesn’t have to be you. Not if you have a chance to go.”

“If it’s a steady leader you want,” Mick suggested. “What about me or Alfonso? We don’t talk about it, really, but Alf and I, we’re not VKs; we’re here on our own charges, and we’re staying, so why not let one of us take over as captain?”

“No,” Uma and Gil said together.

Ignoring the confused and half offended look on Mick’s face, Fang said slowly, “I’ve been given the impression that there’s… a very limited range of people who are… acceptable on the mainland, and I have a feeling I’m not in that category, am I?”

“I’m not going to answer that question,” Uma declared. “Because we’re going to work on that, too, and we’re going to get to a point where none of that matters, and we _will_ bring you over, too, Fang. But, in the meantime… honestly, you’re the one I want to take over this crew.”

“Oh,” Fang replied in surprise.

“That’s what you were getting at anyway, right?” Uma checked.

Fang nodded.

“Good,” Cai propped her arm up on Fang’s shoulder, staring at Gil. “It’s settled, then, right, everybody?”

She looked at her crewmates behind her, who all pointedly agreed. “Definitely,” Clay said for all of them. “Fang will keep us sane here, and you, Gil, will take the mainland by storm and set them all straight there.”

“And keep _us_ sane all the while,” Harry added, gesturing between himself and Uma.

Gil looked between them all for a few seconds, eventually turning to Fang to ask, “You’re sure?”

“If I want to take my own turn at being the badass boss? Of course I’m sure!”

“Okay,” Gil beamed as he turned back to Harry and Uma. “I guess that’s settled then.”

Harry jumped up to hug him, and when Gil stumbled half a step back into the wall, he kissed him. Laughing, Uma wormed her way into the middle of their embrace.

When they’d made their way out of the captain’s quarters, Gil asked Ben, “Who’s coming this time?”

“You, Blanche, and Grayson.” Gil drew a skeptical breath in through his teeth, and Ben asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Two questions,” Gil began, pulling the quartet aside again as he lowered his voice. “The easy one is, if you usually bring four kids, and all of his family on these ships are going, can Le Fou Deux come too?”

“He’s too young to attend Auradon Prep,” Uma informed him apologetically.

“No younger than Dizzy,” Gil pointed out.

Ben nodded thoughtfully. “He can come. He may not be able to attend Auradon Prep, but, truthfully, he has a home to go to if boarding school isn’t for him.”

“He does?” Uma asked in surprise. “I thought we were being a little more spontaneous than that here.”

“There are some things I’m not necessarily proud of that you don’t know about,” Ben said. “Their aunt is willing to take all of them in; she has been all summer.”

“Huh,” Uma said. “Well, that works out perfectly.”

“I wish,” Ben muttered under his breath, but nobody commented, so the king asked, “What’s your other question, Gil?”

Gil called out, “Fang, Harriet, c’mere!”

They both came over in time to hear as Gil asked, not necessarily trying to be quiet with this line of questioning, “How are we going to convince Blanche to leave?”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked in confusion.

“She still has a boyfriend here, not to mention CJ, the Stabbington cousins, and now Yen. Three of those crewmembers we could get away with bringing over here, if everyone is comfortable with that, but the little guy… we’re kind of rough as a crew for him, I think.”

“Neva,” Uma suggested, the look in her eyes saying she’d already thought it through on the ride here. “I think she could take over where Blanche leaves off. What do you think, Harriet?”

Harriet nodded. “I’m okay with that as long as she’s willing.”

Grinning as things started to fall into place, Gil called, “Neva!”

When the blonde came over, Harriet slung an arm around her shoulders, asking companionably, “How would you feel about a long-term babysitting gig?”

* * *

Ten minutes later, Harry and Uma were in the captain’s quarters, watching Gil pack. The others had gone to the Madelina to get Grayson and talk to Blanche, and they were all supposed to reconvene at the bus in a half-hour, but for now it was just the triad, together at last, right back where they had started.

“Hey, Harry?” Gil asked, looking around the tiny room before he looked down at his leather satchel, filled with the few things he had to bring.

“Yeah?”

“Punch me.”

“Why?”

“So that I know this is actually happening,” he admitted, glancing between Harry and Uma.

Harry stood up from the bed, and Gil automatically braced for a punch – but Harry kissed him instead. “It’s happening, Gilly,” he promised, hugging him with a smile.

Uma stood and wrapped her arms around Harry, too, and Harry’s smile only widened at being between them. For the moment, everything was peaceful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I stay up later than I should have to finish this? Why, yes, yes, I did. I regret nothing.  
> Hopefully you guys enjoyed this story! Feel free to leave a comment about this story, or about what else you would like to see covered in this universe, be it a different POV, setting, movie-verse, etc.  
> Grayson's story is coming next!


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